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Beijing Journal; For a Prize That's Olympian, China Jumps the Gun

It seems recently that all of Beijing is flushed with Olympic fever, busy making preparations. The posters are up at Beijing International Airport. Commemorative stamps have been issued. Taxi drivers are learning English to prepare for the influx of foreign guests. The logo is cropping up on key chains and bumper stickers.

Sydney? Oh no, not that Olympics. Not the one that begins on Sept. 15 in Australia.

We're talking the Summer Olympiad 2008, the games to which Beijing desperately, desperately wants to play host -- although the International Olympic Committee will not chose a site for about another year.

''Holding the Olympics in 2008 is the common wish of all Chinese,'' said Beijing's deputy mayor, Liu Jingmin, who is chief of the bid committee. ''We are confident and full of hope that they will be held here.''

Speaking at the space-age command center that has been constructed to mastermind the bid -- an entire floor of a hotel -- Mr. Liu walks crisply and with determination past Olympic statues decked with Beijing's newly designed Olympic logo and huge pictures of stadiums, real and yet to be built. Teams of engineers pore over designs submitted by international architects for a new Olympic village for north Beijing.

But to understand why this teeming city with so many day-to-day problems is investing so much in pursuit of a distant dream, rewind history a bit: seven years ago, Beijing lost to Sydney by the slimmest of margins in an effort to hold this year's Olympics. (In 2004 the site will be Athens.)

To the Chinese it was a huge loss of face, the big fish that got away. And watching Australia basking in Olympic glory now has no doubt left them itching with desire, determined that no price is too high to land the games this time, no flaw too small to expunge in order to succeed.

''Last time we only lost by two votes and there was really no loser, we were just unlucky,'' Mr. Liu said. ''But our wish of holding an Olympics never faded. And compared to 1993, Beijing is much more competitive now.''

As Mr. Liu points out, Beijing has enjoyed strong economic growth and vast amounts of public construction since 1993. Also, China has become far more engaged internationally, moving from a pariah state still in the shadow of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre to a growing economic powerhouse that is about to enter the World Trade Organization.

And to get the Olympics, Beijing has already essentially promised a vast speedup in its remodeling of the city, building three new subway lines and a new highway to ease the city's horrible traffic. It will also turn 1,235 acres of bare earth into green space and move factories out of the city to improve its environment and clean up its often foul air.

The bid committee's official web site (www.beijing-olympic.org.cn) lists 10 reasons for choosing Beijing:

No. 1 -- China, which has one-fifth of the world's population, has never held the event. No. 3 -- China ranked fourth in medals at the past two summer Olympics. No. 4 -- Stable politics and a low crime rate. No. 10 -- Independent surveys show that 94.6 percent of Beijing's residents want the Olympics there.

Most Beijingers do seem to want it with a passion, often in part because they think it will force the government to bankroll and complete much-needed projects that would otherwise drag on for years. Twenty environmental groups, some of which are frequently at odds with the government, have signed on to a Green Olympic Program, to help clean up Beijing.

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''Of course I support the bid,'' said Lin Xuezhu, a 36-year-old cab driver waiting for a customer outside a luxury hotel here. ''The roads will be improved, it will make Beijing more famous and for me it means more customers -- there's nothing bad.''

He said that his cab company had already begun to teach its drivers English for the Olympics and that he was eagerly awaiting his turn. Last month, the Beijing city government began an ''English-speaking campaign'' whose goal is to teach half of all Beijingers 100 English phrases to prepare for the Olympics.

With the city government's Olympic obsession mounting, everything is now evaluated in terms of how it will affect the bid.

In the name of the Olympics, the police are stopping bare-chested cyclists and forcing them to don shirts. This past weekend, pet lovers staged a nine-event pet olympics in support of the Olympic bid.

Radio talk shows advise people on what they can do to support the effort: Drivers mustn't overcharge, by even a penny. Industry managers must make sure company vans don't pollute. People shouldn't spit on the ground, a still widespread habit here.

Last week, the bid effort got a big push when the International Olympic Committee announced that Beijing was among the five finalists for 2008, along with Paris, Toronto, Istanbul and Osaka, Japan.

Beautiful young women in traditional dress lined the hallway into a lavish government news conference at a hotel, held to announce the news and discuss future plans. Chinese reporters clapped giddily at every answer and state-run news media quickly began dissecting the pros and cons of the competing cities.

But not everyone in this city of 15 million could get excited about an event eight years away that will require billions in government outlays.

''Sure it's great for the country, but it's bad for me,'' said a scraggly laid-off worker named Wang who was sitting nearby, hoping to find a customer for his pedicab.

''Already they're telling us you can't drive on this road and that road -- you look too bad,'' he said. ''If we get the Olympics, they'll totally shut us out.''

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A version of this article appears in print on September 6, 2000, on Page A00004 of the National edition with the headline: Beijing Journal; For a Prize That's Olympian, China Jumps the Gun. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe